Gift From the Faeries
by lanesa
Summary: trabia. the best gifts are always unexpected. [selphie]


**Gift From the Faeries **

Final Fantasy VIII

_forget the pain and the tears behind you_

_bury underneath your feet the remains_

_of what's been left behind_

_'cause you have got a long long way to run _

_but now you dance the rest of the way_

_and you don't look back_

_can you hear that angel singing_

_as you rise_

~Lifehouse

At long last, there was snow again.  All around her it lay, glittering and sparkling as crystal shards of diamond under the weak sunlight that pierced its way through the hazy clouds above.  

Not that she minded the balmy temperate weather of Balamb, of course.  On the contrary, she rather enjoyed the mild weather all year round, and evenings spent upon the cool sands of the seaside town with the salt wind blowing through short hair were what she regarded as the little pleasures in life.  But in the end she considered herself Trabian born and bred, and that meant frigid sub-zero weather.  There was ice and snow in her blood, howling wind and frosty blizzards streaking through her veins; the very northern stars shone in her eyes.  She came from Trabia and in the end it was to Trabia she would return. 

Even now, as the recesses of her mind were filled with the shadows of worry, it was all she could do but skip across the blanket of whiteness, her steps springy and light. She was home again.  For a moment at least, she could forget all the terribleness and horror that had taken place and simply let the lure of the snow take over her senses. 

But in the instant she caught sight of Trabia Garden, her world shattered.  

She knew very well that the missiles had been launched at Trabia, but always there was the flickering flame of hope in her chest, that maybe, just _maybe_, the missiles had missed their mark.  But now, as she took in the blackened, crumbled shell of what had once been her beloved home, hope was dashed to pieces.   

There was no snow around the outside edges of the Garden, the earth around was laid bare, trampled grass, soot and ash scattered all around.  Ash-gray front doors barred her way in, but she took no heed; without a moment's hesitation she was clambering over, collapsed wooden timbers groaning under her slight weight.  With a flying leap she was on the other side, landing catlike on the once-cobbled stone walkway that was now covered in a layer of thick dust, littered with uprooted trees and unpaved stone.  She barely registered the calls of her teammates behind her before she took off once more, pummeling feet and pounding heart in a yellow blur up the road ahead. 

            _She didn't **believe** this, this couldn't happen, no not Trabia, not **her** Trabia, where was everyone? she needed to see someone—anyone…please…_

            So she ran, and with each step she could feel herself trembling, half in fear and dread, but mostly in ever-present hope.  For she was Selphie Tilmitt—and that fact alone did not allow her to wallow in despair for long.  Selphie Tilmitt was always cheerful, sunshine and daffodils, and she knew that in the midst of darkness there was always the light of hope.   

            Then came the bodies.  

And suddenly all the training she had undergone, all the battle experiences, the warfare, the missions she had gone through, did not prepare her in the least for what she now stumbled upon.  

            Against a crumbled wall they lay, bodies hastily wrapped in white sheets stained with dark blood.  Wide blue eyes stared straight at her, unseeing; still faces caught in a moment of terror; lifeless hands flung out, pointing…pointing straight at her. 

            _you left,_ they accused.  _you left us here and you escaped.  you didn't stop the missiles. you failed. **you** killed us. you **killed** us…_

            She shut her eyes tight and her breath ran ragged. 

_No! No!!!_ her mind screamed.  _I didn't, I never meant to, I should've been here, I'm sorry!_

Even through closed lids the image that was before her was firmly imprinted upon her mind.  Now she did quiver, legs unsteady and on the verge of buckling.  Knees were locked together and teeth were gritted. 

"I'm so sorry." Whispered words escaped from trembling lips, but in an instant the wind had swiftly whisked them away, mere ripples in heavy silence. 

Only then did the waves of terror and hysteria sweep over her.  With a sob and choke that lodged itself into her throat _(where was the hope now)_ she sprinted away; in her urgency she neither knew where she was going nor how. 

She ran smack into someone she didn't see.  In a jumble of arms and legs they tumbled to the ground, and instinctively Selphie landed in a crouched position, nunchakus held out stiff in front of her.  The person whom she had fallen upon lay sprawling, dark hair fanned out around her, grumbling and groaning. 

"You never were good at looking where you were going, Selphie."  The girl clambered to her feet, rubbing her forehead.

Wide green eyes reflected disbelief at first, and then a flood of relief and immense joy.  Before the girl was aware of what was happening she had been jumped on by a whirling yellow ball of motion, squeezing and hugging her to death, crying and laughing all at once.     

"Julie! Julie! You're alive! You're okay!" Through the film of tears that blinded her eyes Selphie laughed, wrapping her arms around the dark-haired girl that was her old friend. 

"Of course I'm all right. Who would there be to make fun of you if I didn't survive?"  Julie grinned, relief reflected in her own eyes.

They both laughed then, hesitant laughs filled with remembered heartache and pain, still too near to bear.    

"Where's—where is…everyone…?" Afraid of the answer, and not quite sure what she was trying to ask, Selphie's voice was somber.    

            Julie smiled tightly, eyes downcast.  "Most of them are…around, helping out…and then…we took care of the people who…over there…you saw…I'm sorry…" 

            Silence seemed to wrap itself around them. Looking around helplessly, Selphie shivered. 

            "Julie…I—I'm sorry."                                                             

            Brow furrowed gently, Julie wrapped an arm firmly around Selphie. 

            "I knew you'd come back," she whispered fiercely. "I'm glad. Glad you're back."

            _Now look what you've done,_ Selphie admonished herself. _You've upset Julie. The last thing people need here is to have one more person to worry over._ _Well, not anymore. Selphie Tilmitt is here to help.    _

Pasting a bright smile to her face, Selphie straightened up. "You can count on me, Julie. I'll do everything I can." 

**

            Nodding curtly to a passing faculty member, Squall strode up to the rest of his teammates, standing quietly just beyond the damaged front doors. 

            Shading his eyes, Zell stood up on tiptoes, peering down the long road ahead.  "Man, what a mess."  He shook his head.

             In a circle of solemn silence, they stood for a moment, each lost within their own thoughts.  

            "Have you guys seen Selphie?" Unsettled, Irvine voiced his thoughts.

            Quistis pointed a chiseled finger down the road.  "She ran off ahead."

            "Come on, let's go after her." 

In single file they stepped, a line of hardened warriors. Trained SeeDs; sullen fighters; bitter experience under their belts.  They walked passed the dead, the wounded, the scarred living without a second glance.  Nothing new, nothing they hadn't seen before; nothing they could _afford_ to allow themselves to feel or think.  Trabia.  Just another casualty of war. 

            "Selphie."  Irvine's voice held a note of relief as they found her, perched next to the dark-haired girl upon the edge of a worn fountain.  

            She waved energetically, almost toppling off her seat.  "Hey guys!"

            Ever the ladies man, Irvine swept off his hat, winking at the two lovely ladies in front of him.  "What can I do for you?"

            "You know, there should be a basketball court in the back.  Would you guys mind waiting there for me?  I want to go catch up with some of my friends…I won't be long."  She met his eyes, and her voice was cheerful.  

He wasn't fooled for an instant.  Bright green depths echoed with unspoken sorrow, grief and anguish tumbled one on top of the other.     

            Averted eyes and a tight-lipped smile, then she was off again, running into the distance.  His eyes were thoughtful as he watched her go, a whisper of sunshine and daisies, daffodils waving in the blue sky.  Reluctantly he turned his feet to follow the others. 

                                                            **

            She came across more people now.  Workers, instructors, old classmates, she passed them by with a wave and an encouraging grin, stopping often to chat.  There were injured cadets too, and she would stop, clench her teeth, bestow a merry smile, _(ignore the blood)_ lend a helping hand.

            It wasn't until she came across the fallen tree before the entrance to the cemetery that the dam inside her broke.  It had once been a massive spruce, in its prime standing tall and proud, perpetual sentinel to the garden.  Her childhood had been spent up high in its branches, sunny afternoons of carefree games, whispered secrets behind leafy boughs, giggles and laughter around the weathered trunk, cozy picnics in cool shade, welcome escape under sun-dappled shelter.  Standing the test of ages, the tree was the Guardian, the pride of Trabia, an everlasting presence that would stand in dignity into an eternity.               

            But now it was down, that which was impossible, an occurrence that never in her wildest dreams she could have comprehended, brought down upon its knees with a mere shaking of the earth.  Spruce branches littered the ground, spruce leaves scattered in the wind, spruce trunk lay across the path.  Strength was gone, might and pride, dignity and beauty were all gone.  Death.  More death.  With its death went her hope. Everywhere she turned, there was death. 

            It was then that she wept.  Bitter tears trickled down her cheeks to water the burnt earth as the torrent within her was unleashed.  She cried for all that was gone, all that she had lost.  Trabia was her home, and it had been punished most cruelly.  A part of it had died, and with it a piece of her had died.  

            There, in the hazy gray afternoon, Selphie Tilmitt wept as she had never wept before.  She cried for the lives lost, the pain endured, the blood shed.  But mostly she cried for the tree felled, its roots cut deep.

                                                            **

            Irvine Kinneas's feet had traveled in a circle and had brought him back to the spot where he had last seen the girl in a bright yellow jumper.  Julie was still sitting serenely upon the edge of the fountain, ankles crossed together, lost in thought. 

            "Err, excuse me." He lifted his hat, clearing his throat. 

            She looked up at him absentmindedly.  "It sure is getting cold out.  Perhaps there'll be a gift from the faeries on a day like this."    

            Raising a dark brow, Irvine gave her a quizzical look.  "A gift from the faeries?  Is that some type of Trabian slang?" 

            Seeming to ignore him, the dark-haired girl hummed softly under her breath.  "Snow…snow, gently falling, faeries' gift, hidden surprise left by the faaaeries…" 

             "…that's an odd way of putting it."  Irvine scratched the back of his neck.  "umm…"

            Julie looked at him through calm eyes.  "Faeries," she explained patiently,  "are magical beings.  They bathe the world anew with each new snow, and bring us all life and hope."  She grinned impishly at him.  "It's a Trabian belief.  I think we're in dire need of some of that gift right now, don't you think?"

            He laughed in return.  "Yeah, I guess…"

            Focusing behind him, Julie pointed a finger in the direction beyond.  "Selphie."

            He crept carefully past the large tree sprawled across the dirt path, regarding it quietly for a moment.  An unexpected wave of nostalgia washed over him, gone as suddenly as it had come, and he continued picking his way through piles of leaf and rock into the cemetery.  She was there; he knew she would be.  Kneeling among the strewn pieces of stone that served as crude grave markers, he could see glimpses of sunshine yellow, contrasting vibrantly against the pale background.   

            He stayed in the background with hat brim pulled low over his eyes.  Hushed stillness demanded respect, and so he observed her quietly through alert blue eyes. 

            "I-I did it everyone! I was able to carry out my dream…my dream band. You remember how we promised each other…my performance…our performance we were supposed to do?…you all saw me, right? You heard me?"  

She knelt by crumbled stone, softly smoothing wrinkled contours of faded petals into the curves of the earth.

"I'll keep playing for however long it takes for you to hear! Our dream….it's much bigger—better than before. Promise."  

Carried by a passing breath of wind, a stray leaf grazed her fingers, on its ascent to the heavens.  Held in fingers tinged blue with cold, she gazed at it wordlessly; felt the familiar beginnings of tears mark their course down flushed cheeks once more.          

            Face was upturned towards the sky, as the leaf spiraled upwards and the tears were caressed by kisses of chilly wind. 

            _This wasn't supposed to happen.  I was supposed to have saved you supposed to have come back supposed to have been happy.  Supposed to have seen all your happy faces.      _

            "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm sorry."  And the tears continued in their unbroken path down her face.  

            In a moment a thick duster had been draped across her bare shoulders, a strong arm encased around her trembling figure. 

            Irvine Kinneas drew the tiny figure closer towards his body, silent plea of acceptance and understanding left hanging in frosty air.  Bright things like her weren't supposed to cry. Sunflower, daffodil, golden daisy; she was supposed to run carefree under cerulean skies, not a care in the world.  She was supposed to giggle and dance and tumble over laughing. Jump and spin and skip and the air was supposed to echo with her mirth. It shouldn't be like this; with her huddled shivering on the ground, pain etched into her heart, hope burnt to ashes like the place they stood in. It wasn't right it didn't _belong_.  

Many things were _supposed_ to have been, but with a whisper of time, they weren't. 

            So he frowned down upon her, gentle crinkles creasing blue eyes.    

            She looked back up at him, green eyes wide with torment, reflected with sorrow, before she dropped her head against his chest.  

            "Selphie." He began, unsure of what exactly he wanted to say.  "So, like…I hear there's hope of a gift from the faeries today."

            Wearily, she raised a slender arm to rub her eyes.  "Irvine, please…stop. It's okay, I know - know what you're trying to say, and it's okay. _Really_. And thank you. But this isn't a game, and you can't really make everything disappear with some faeries' tale."      

            He ran callused fingers through her hair, marveling absently at the way dark strands flowed like silk.  

            "No, not a game, not a tale," he murmured. His thumb brushed the pearls of moisture off her cheeks and he slowly smiled at her. In a smooth motion he was up, hand extended towards her, issuing an invitation.    

            "Here, come on. From the faeries. I've already found your gift." 

            Back around the stones, back through the cemetery entrance, they made their way back to the mighty spruce lying with quiet dignity across the dirt. 

            A cluster of branches was in the way and he parted them with ease, brushing away matted fern from the ground.  He motioned the girl behind him over, and moved away to let her see.  She looked curiously, and her eyes shone with disbelief.

            For there, in the midst of blistered earth and soiled undergrowth, in the midst of all that was dead, sheltered under the shadow of the fallen trunk, a young sapling rose from the earth. Tender youth, child of the once mighty; it coiled and writhed with new life, green shoots unfurled, head upraised, seeking the heavens.  

Push past the dying, push past the old, push past the buried.  It was a gift of new beginnings. 

            She cupped her hands about it and breathed.   

            "The spruce is dead. But look what it gave." He reached out a finger to stroke velvet stem.  "Youth borne from a seed. Soon it'll grow into a tree again. A tree in a garden. A garden from a tree."  

            Bending down to look into her eyes, Irvine grinned.  "Come on, so…like, what's that word you always say again?"

            "Booyaka."  Her lips curved in a small smile as her hands caught tight hold of his.  "From the ashes we rise." 

            Lightest green sparkled into blue eyes, lit with sudden understanding.  He saw in an instant, the grief and anguish melt away, a veil lifted, sunbeams allowed to finally reach forth. 

            _(towards the future)_ Selphie looked upwards.  "We'll be okay now.  Trabia will be back, bigger and better than before."  

His gaze pierced into hers and now they both smiled, hesitant forms that swiftly took shape to dazzle as bright as the sun.  

            "We'll be back." Her whispered vow was borne away by rustling wind, lifted higher and higher.

Then, from the heavens, the snow began to fall.  It was a gift from the faeries. 

~*~

A/N: …and the sappiness abounds.  Sorry about that, everyone.  This piece just sorta…came, you could say. And yes, I do believe that Irvine really _is_ a softie underneath. ^_^  Feedback?


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